From One to Another [closed-Roami-Leo]

[Deleted]

Leo walked through the familiar mall, tracing the steps toward their destination. People filtered around Leo's lithe form, occasionally turning to look at the bouncing blonde as they passed. Today was a good day, a great one even, for Leo's budding information business. They couldn't help but lament at all the time and money that was lost due to them not thinking of this earlier in life. Information was power, especially when one was very well informed. Not only did it bring one power, but that power bred more and more of it.

After hacking into multiple databases, scanning through various camera feeds in important places, and searching more than a few browser histories of influential people, Leo was now starting to get a pickup in their business. Today was a great day because they were making another sale. This time a relatively good one, and the information wouldn't even make any enemies in the process. Someone simply wanted to know the ins and outs of the Loresette education system. Having grown up in it, Leo felt that they wouldn't even need to research it to give a good report.

That said, Leo was one to pay attention to detail, and not one to skimp out on what someone was overpaying for. So, they had continued to compile and collect information the whole trip over to the mall. A small USB in Leo's hand was constantly being updated as they walked, different bits and pieces filling in the respective gaps. The request was for objective structural content, paired with the curriculums at each grade level.

Normally, one USB would not be enough to handle all of the information in such a detailed manner, but Leo had been working on something lately. In anticipation of starting their information brokering, Leo had come up with a new structure for a circuit board that could store a very sizable amount of information. Many companies would and could kill for this tech, but Leo was not one for sharing. It could only be used one time before the board would fry itself. It wasn't a perfect solution, but would prevent it from leaking for the most part.

Typically it might be hard to prove that the information people wanted was on the drive, but thats where Leo used their virtual dimension to go through the data and present it to the recipient before handing over the only hard copy. At least the only hard copy that would leave the virtual dimension.

It was only after a few moments of walking through the mall that Leo arrived at one of the closed shops. An old restaurant that used to sell something greasy. The closed shop occupied a corner area of the mall, which Leo had went through the process of purchasing from a series of shell companies. After walking up, they opened the door using the key, and flipped the hanging sign from closed to "open soon". After closing the front door again, and leaving it unlocked, Leo moved to the back of the store and looked at the blank wall.

With a wave of Leo's hand, and a bit of effort the wall began to artifact. Various colored boxes flashed across the wall in the shape of a door before a deep freezer door appeared, slightly ajar.

Lets get this sale!

At that, Leo walked through the door, leaving it slightly ajar so it wouldn't disappear.

[Roami Bonpyre]

Roami stretched, sighing as she went over her task a fifth time. The Madame wanted her to go out into the downtown area to meet up with someone who has a very particular set of skills, skills that could be useful to the dark market; a recruitment mission essentially, and she wasn't to return until she came to come sort of agreement with them. Roami didn't know who she was meeting up with, nor their name, however she did know the exact location of their meeting. She only hoped there weren't fire alarms nearby. Taking a mental note that the meeting is disguised as a simple request from the organization, she almost tore through the paper when she saw exactly how much they paid to set the meeting up, and what exactly was requested. Dolores is too much, she thought to herself. Being royalty herself, even she thought the amount was too high.

Memorizing the details a sixth time, the devil burned the paper and anything else that had the name "dark market" on it before she set off, Roami began to venture Downtown to her destination: Halo Crown Mall. At this time of day, there was bound to be plenty of people around, and she highly doubted any of them would appreciate being burned alive; her clothes were made of fire, after all. Making sure to keep the flames to an absolute minimum, she managed to make it look like she was a normal shopper from a distance, the illusion quickly breaking the closer you inspected her.

Looking around for the specific shop she was told to wait inside, Roami steered clear of the water fountain present before spotting the location in a rather off placed section of the mall. It looked like an old restaurant at first glance, nowhere near as high pitched as the one she used to visit in Hell, but Roami didn't really care what became or will become of the earthly establishment. She only wanted to complete the task given to her by the Madame, both for her sake and for Dolores'. 

After a few steps, she reached the entrance. 'Open Soon'. Roami tilted her head at the sign, visibly confused at the wording, but ignored it and continued inside without as much as a knock. She very quickly discovered she didn't need to knock, as there was absolutely nothing inside besides a lone door on an empty wall. From where she was standing, the door looked open. An interesting place to meet up, but it seemed discreet enough... and if it was a trap, she was of course prepared. Who could best her in combat anyway? She walked up to the door, each one of her bare-footed steps making a small mark on the floor, opening it and walking inside. 

What greeted her was a young looking person, couldn't be any older than eighteen, standing, waiting... for her? Roami's bright blue eyes quickly adjusted to their new surroundings, the flames covering her body resuming their hot dance around her body. Where was she, a different dimension? ...heaven? God, Roami hoped not. Either way, without a doubt this was the person she was looking for. She'd come across young brokers and recruits before, and was interested in seeing how this one fared. Sprouting a smile, she greeted the stranger. "Hey! My name's Roami. I'm with the Dark Market." A very straightforward greeting, but if this wasn't the person she was looking for, she'd just kill them. Simple.

"I think you have something for me?" she asked, waiting for confirmation before revealing her true intentions. 

[@leovaleris ]

[Deleted]

Leo had waited patiently, having arrived early enough to get settled and calm their nerves. As for the dimension, Leo kept it simple and to the point. Typically they liked to create a grandiose setting, trying to appear powerful in front of their buyers. The amount of money spent on this sale though warranted a bit less frivolity. The kind of people able to move money like this typically didn't enjoy being toyed with in any way.

Leo made it essentially an endless expanse of white. The floor and horizon indistinguishable from each other led the space to feel larger than it was. There was a limit to the size of the pocket dimension after all. About 20 feet into the pocket dimension was a rectangular business table with only 2 seats. One at each head. On the head of the table nearest Leo, who stood farthest from the door, lay the USB containing all of the relevant information.

Eventually another youth walked through the door, toned and lithe. Leo was surprised, thinking maybe someone had stumbled in without meaning to. This suspicion quickly faded, as the girl's clothing sprouted into flames that danced around her body. Leo couldn't help but swallow slightly, distinctly feeling that a wrong step could put her life in danger.

Wasn't this just supposed to be about school structures? Why is such an intense demon showing up?

When the buyer smiled and introduced herself, it put Leo more at ease. They did their best to seem confident and assured, hoping the instinctual fear they felt didn't bleed through.

"The Dark Market. The liaison didn't mention the buyer's affiliation. No matter. You may call me Leo"

With that, Leo motioned to the USB on the table, and clapped their hands twice. The door behind Roami closed soundlessly, only a soft click betraying its movement. At the same time in the shop, the freezer door shut and different colored pixels flashed across it. A brief lightshow later, the door was gone. While the door was closing, a small whole appeared in the floor next to the chair closest to Roami. In an almost elevator-like fashion, a man with devilish features in a flaming black tuxedo rose from with the hole. As he stopped rising, the small white platform he was standing on expanded and meshed into the solid white floor.

With a three quarter bow, he pulled out the chair and motioned for Roami to sit. "Distinguished guest, please take a seat. Do not be concerned about the property, it does not burn." As the man spoke, the material of the chair shifted like revolving light panes before settling on a fire resistant dense fabric. Leo took their own seat during this time, waiting for their guest to follow suit.

[Roami Bonpyre]

It would seem that this young teenager was indeed the person she was supposed to be meeting, only managing to surprise Roami even more. Upon hearing that they didn't know what the Dark Market was, she sighed. Of course her sadistic boss didn't tell them who was "buying" from them. It only served to make her job all the more harder, especially if who was in front of her wasn't as nice and polite as they seemed. 

Leo, it was a simple name, and Roami was sure it was short for something. Regardless, she nodded her head in approval. It was a nice name or nickname. Roami heard the entrance behind her close, but didn't look back to observe. There was no need to, she was confident like that. Maybe too confident. Her attention was directed to the piece of tech on the table. That must be what Leo thought she was here for. She couldn't help but let out a chuckle. She had to hand it to the Madame, she knew how to trick people, but at the same time, she felt irritated that her boss was tricking a teenager like this. 

Afterwards, she witnessed as a seemingly devil-like butler appeared from the nothingness that was the space they were in. A servant, without a doubt, something that instantly reminded her of her palace life in Hell. Slowly, she was beginning to like Leo's style. Roami, turning towards the sharply black dressed individual, dismissed his bow with a small motion of her hand by habit, something she did while she was still reigning queen. It was only customary. The man spoke in a polite mannerism, and when he was finished, a chair appeared after brief moments of light changing the likeness of the chair. Impressive... wherever she was, Leo seemed to have complete dominion over this space.

Roami watched as Leo took their seat, and she did the same, pulling herself closer to the table. Her posture was elegant and royal in nature, with both hands in her lap, her back straight, eyes straight forward, and a small polite smile on her face. "Well, it's good that you're the right person," she began, "I'm gonna be honest with you. I'm really here for another reason, but first I should explain what the dark market is." Her smile faded as she started to briefly run down what the organization was. "It's an organization lead by the Madame, Dolores, that specializes in gathering info, selling things, and making deals." She stopped there, believing that was enough she had to reveal about what they were. 

Shuffling in her seat, she took a small breath and blew, thick black smoke emerging from her parted lips. The smoke, small in size, made its way over to the other end of the table towards the USB device if it was able to do so. If successful, it would envelop the entire thing, and begin to move it back towards Roami slowly. "This isn't what I came here for... I'm actually on a recruitment mission," she confessed. Her ocean eyes still locked onto Leo, she waited in silence to see if they would put two and two together.

[@leovaleris]

[Deleted]

Leo listened as Roami spoke, taking in the information and quickly beginning to draw conclusions. As Roami described the Dark Market, Leo quickly scanned through the underground database within the Virtual Dimension for information about it. If one were able to see underneath the floor, one would be find multiple floors full of different machinery and server racks. Lights and fans whirred as the deep store of information was sifted through rapidly.

There wasn't a lot of concrete information that Leo had on the organization, and what Roami said seemed to match up with the rumors. What Leo didn't have was the name of the person in charge, so they filled in that info tentatively. Without getting a second source Leo wouldn't set anything in stone.

As Roami spoke, Leo also deliberated on why someone from a mysterious underground organization would bother to explain all of this. It only took them a moment to connect the dots on the two possibilities. Roami was either here because they wanted Leo with them, or dead to remove any loose ends. When smoke began to billow out from Roami's lips, which then snaked towards the USB. Leo did not move to intercept the smoke, as they did not want to antagonize either a client, or an enemy. Right after Roami retrieved the data, she dispelled some of Leo's concerns about being a loose end. Instead they wanted to recruit her.

Leo had to work to not let their relief show visibly, instead projecting confidence. "I appreciate the offer, but I do not pick sides. That said, I also am not bound by the same silly constructs of right and wrong that plagues normal society." Leo quickly brushed their long blonde hair behind their ear, meeting Roami's eyes. With a wave of the hand, the fiendish butler disintegrated into pixels before vanishing entirely. "While I am not looking to join, I am not adverse to furthering the friendship your boss has brought to my table." Leo smiled charmingly, different plans moving through their mind. They were not out of the woods yet, as some darker groups are unwilling to stand having competition. "Oh my, It seems I've been neglecting my duties as host. Would you like some refreshments?"

[Roami Bonpyre]

At first, Roami tensed up. If she went back to Dolores with a "no" as an answer, she would undoubtedly go on a killing spree, or something else similarly macabre. Thinking about just leading Leo to the hideout anyway, she eased back up as they stated that they would be open to working with the market anyway. Personally, Roami also didn't mind too much about the morality of plenty of things. The friends she used to have even went as far as saying that she was entirely immoral, which is something she didn't agree with... completely. 

"Oh, well that's both good and bad news, mostly good!" she said, smiling and meeting the young teen's gaze. Their eyes were as bright as hers, Roami thought, wondering how someone like them ended up in a situation like this. "I'm sure the Madame would be happy to hear that, I know I am. It really makes my job a lot easier. You're nice, young, cute, and have a lot ahead of you, it'd be horrible if you died." After finishing that sentence, she suddenly remembered why her friends called her immoral.

Shifting the USB drive between her heated fingers, she watched as they dismissed the servant earlier present. "You know, he really reminded me of home... are you royalty? She just had to ask, she enjoyed being slightly spoiled by the devil butler. "I used to be."
After Leo asked if she wanted any refreshments, she instantly shook her head. "No thanks, I already ate, and anything with water in it doesn't... mix well with a, um, you know. Fire devil." She started to lightly laugh for a bit, further relaxing in the white expanse. "So! What kind of friendship are you wanting to establish, and how much are you asking for?"

Pausing a moment with a finger on her lips in thought, she began to run down numbers. If the Madame was willing to pay that absurd amount of money to secure a teenager in her ranks, Roami would do the same plus more... just to screw with her boss. Besides, she was royalty, if Dolores didn't pay the amount she would. "How about... hmm... ten million?" She held back in a laugh as she stated the amount. Dolores was going to lose it.

[@leovaleris]

[Deleted]

Leo was glad to hear that things would not be escalating into a fight, and even more glad that Roami wanted to get into specifics about their future partnership. They weren't very phased about the threat of death, at least not in a fearful way. More so in the conscious sense. Worst come to worst, Leo had enough detonatable material in the form of power sources to cause anyone to think twice about fighting in here.

Hearing the slight pain following Roami's past claim to royalty helped to endear her a bit, though Leo silently wished she could say the same. When Roami denied refreshments, Leo waved their hand again, sending the mental signal to some of the other servants to begin prepping a few dishes. Not all things could be done instantly here. Changing the meterial on the chair was the extent of their influence on external objects. It was actually more of a layering of digital material over the top of it. The virtual objects could take on any property that Leo understood the principles behind how it worked.

As Roami gave an 8 figure number, Leo's pupils constricted. "Money like that buys close friends. I treat my friends quite well. Since it was your boss that made first contact, let me tell you what being my friend affords you." Leo stood up, and with that 4 projectors rose from the center of the table. The wood split and receded underneath as the technology rose on a stark white column. Lazer light flickered to life within the projectors, the beams of light intersecting and colliding at an exceptionally high speed. The resulting chaos resolved quickly into a hologram, with a few flashes where the image flickered on and off before stabilizing.

Various different documents flew around and began to occupy the space above the table, pictures with names and log entries. Dozens and dozens of documents filled the air, each one representing an individual or company. As this happened, the door to the pocket dimension softly clicked open to allow outside signal to get in. "This, is a part of the database I have collected. Each file you see here contains all traceable information about an individual or company since I started tracking them." One of the files grew in size, pushing the others to the wayside. On it was a picture of a CEO of a medium sized company.

Leo snapped, and the image on the profile flickered. Suddenly, a view of the CEO at his desk popped into the hologram. He could be seen typing, which was then followed by a window appearing next to the camera feed. On it was the CEO's computer screen, where he could be seen sending an email detailing a large sale of company stock 2 days from now. "If you were to hold stock in this company prior to the sale, you could potentially double the figure you quoted earlier. You said you used to be royalty. Here," Leo waved to both the virtual dimension and to the various pictures which began to come to life with various video feeds. "I am Queen." Following this, a document with significantly less entries came to the forefront. On it was a blurry image of Roami taken from a camera outside of the mall. The entries on it showed which camera and which time she had passed it.

Leo waved her hand, and part of the hologram shifted to form a window with a prompt on it. The window slid down the table to infront of Roami, with the following words. "Leo has changed her relationship status with you to [Friend]." There were two buttons on the hologram. One was Confirm(10,000,000) while the other was Deny.

[Roami Bonpyre]

The devil queen gave herself a moment to think about what Leo just said. Money did buy close friends, but were they really someone's friend, or just a friend to money? Shrugging to her own thought, she nodded in agreement. "I treat my friends well too," she said, "and I'm sure the Madame does too." Now those words were somewhat blatant lies. While Roami enjoyed her friends, she knew how Dolores could be, but as long as Leo kept her word, there shouldn't be any major issues...

Roami watched as Leo stood, machinery of some sort rising in front of them. More tech, something Roami wasn't too adept in, mostly because technology wasn't made devil-proof. Well, Roami-proof, as usually, devils don't make their clothes out of fire. She closely watched the machine with curious eyes, wondering how it was put together, and if it was all Leo's doing, until at last a hologram appeared and stabilized. She was tempted to poke it, but resisted the temptation. She could really use holograms in her room, it would be a great distraction.

She continued watching, blue eyes darting from one image to another in amazement. A database? Of multiple individuals and companies? Without a doubt, what she was seeing was very impressive, more so than the dual libraries Dolores owned, only because in the base, the information was on paper mostly, but here? It was all digital. This was perfect for the devil though, now she had potentially two ways of getting information for her own use, not the dark market's. Roami pointed to the CEO with moderate interest. "I know him, he's a stingy one," she said, simply. The image changed to the said man hard at work in his office. Leo wasn't lying when they said they weren't concerned with right and wrongs. She again nodded at Leo's assessment, intending to relay the information onto the Madame, who was more akin to stocks.

Afterwards, Roami stood up suddenly as the tech around her hummed, showing her both less images and words than before as well as a not too in focus image of her- it was unmistakable, her red and yellow hair is noticeable from anywhere. So Leo had been watching her, or was she spying on her the moment she entered the mall? She calmed down, sitting in her chair, as she reminded herself that she was in no danger. She was just very unused to the various hidden things the white room can do. She was indeed a queen still, she was just currently without a place to rule, something she occasionally forgot.

A window made out of... something that passed Roami's thought slid down the table with ease. Roami, hands now placed neatly in her lap again, read it. It would seem like Roami's succeeded in gaining Leo's trust, or at least their friendship. Using her right hand to press the confirm button, she smiled. "May this friendship last a lifetime," she said, happily. She knew back at the base, the Madade would be less than thrilled to see the organization's balance drop so steeply, and only wished she was there to see her face. Would it have changed from her usual sadistic façade? "Well, that's that! I'll tell the Madame you're an ally, and let you know if anything else needs to be done. Oh, before I forget," Roami began to use the table as paper, taking care not to mess with the tech in front of her. She bit her tongue and used her finger to draw a map on the table, fire following wherever her nail dragged onto. 

When she was finished, a detailed, or as detailed as she could get, map was burned onto the surface. "Home base is here. It's in the woods, When you find a clearing, that's us. There's a cabin there that acts as a cover, the real stuff is underground. Maybe you can stop by to say hi?" Truthfully, Roami would enjoy being around someone that wasn't scared humans or crazy seers. She was social like that.

[@leovaleris]

[Deleted]

At the click of the confirm, Leo couldn't help but smile. Money like this bred possibilities, and that was what Leo needed right now. Holograms were cool and all, but it didn't change the world. It had only taken a couple weeks to figure out what was keeping the college university researchers from getting it. The hardest part had been getting the finances without causing so much trouble. While it was possible to hack into banks and wire money, there were too many eyes. Leo wasn't above stealing from people, but she was above the drama that hacking such big institutions caused. All it took was one major story and the rest of the banks would lock down like a vice. Enough dedicated people could put a halt to even Leo's hacking prowess if there was enough motivation.

"Assuming I do my job right, this friendship may last multiple lifetimes." Leo was surprised for a moment when Roami bit herself, but when she began to draw on the table using fire, she dropped it. After waiting a bit for the map to be completed, Leo then waved her hand and one of the hologram machines stopped producing light. It swiveled in place, the platform underneath raising higher. After a moment the platform stopped and the hologram machine began to shoot lazer light out at the burned tabletop. It scanned over it twice, from top to bottom and then bottom to top, before the platform lowered once more. When the platform reached the table height again, the hologram machine rejoined the other 3, and they began to draw the map. From there another map appeared next to the drawn one in the air, but this one was a satellite image. The drawn map was then overlayed over the satellite image. The satellite image shifted and changed underneath the drawn map until eventually the landmarks matched up between the two. A confidence rate of 93% appeared next to the two maps.

"If everything looks right, then maybe I can stop by sometime. By the looks of things I will be quite out of my element. As our friendship is new, and still growing, I hope you wont take offense to my security measures when I do visit. For posterities sake as a broker, I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't set up contingencies." Leo brought a face of well practiced concern. "Oh, and do be careful with that USB. It will only transfer data once before the internals destroy themselves. I can assure you that there is no malicious software, I am merely protecting the proprietary hardware." By the end of Leo's words, a charming smile had formed from her lips.

"Kormir, see our guest out." The same butler that had been dismissed earlier once more rose from the ground by Leo's side, and moved to stand by Roami. He bowed once more, this time he said, "My Lady. If you would be so kind as to tell me your title so I may give you proper greetings? Godlord Leo wishes to hold you to your proper standard."

[Roami Bonpyre]

Maybe this friendship would last multiple lifetimes... if Leo was immortal or at the very least didn't age. Roami was sure that even if they weren't, they had some sort of tech on their hands that could make it so. If she learned anything today, it was that machinery was as versatile as flames itself. She also learned that she had a new affinity for instantly appearing devil butlers. Smiling, she nodded her head. "You don't have to assume, you'll do great." 

Sitting still as Leo's magic table took in the hand drawn/burnt map she carved, she was surprised to see that it was fairly accurate after all. Of course it was, she expected nothing less of course. Ninty-three percent was still passing, and well above average as well. After admiring her handiwork, or rather the space image of the market's headquarters, she returned her attention back to her new friend. They were right... the dark market was a bit less tech-y than the white space the duo were in, and even with the technology that was there, Roami knew it paled in comparison to Leo's stuff. "That's a good point... well, I can visit you when I'm not traveling, how's that sound?" Again, the fire demon played with the USB drive as Leo spoke words of caution. She highly doubted Dolores actually wanted the information on here, and only wanted Leo's loyalty, but just in case, she'd heed Leo's words. "Of course," she said, returning their warm smile in kind.

A light popped on in Roami's head upon hearing a new name. "So Kormir is his name? Very nice..." She really had to get herself a new servant, or maybe multiple servants, at some point after her vendetta against the world was finished. Or perhaps before. Without even turning to face Kormir, she stood up, fire lightly flickering around her as if dancing to a heated song. If it rained today, she was screwed. "Queen Roami," she replied coolly, beginning to walk back to the ajar door, again waving off the servant.
Godlord Leo... Godlord? Roami mouthed the word 'oh', surprised that they'd give themselves such a high honorific. Was a godlord higher than a queen? She decided against asking, instead preparing herself to leave. "Leo, if I could, I'd hug you goodbye, but... you know. Maybe next time." Paying respects to the godlord, Roami turned and gave a very small bow. "Have fun with the money!" Roami sure knew she would enjoy watching the market's balance drop and her own remain untouched.

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